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Chapter One
Modern Mistakes
In this book we look not at the brilliant strategies of history's greatest generals and leaders, but at the failures of those who lost wars they should have won, or at least made it a fight. While any book whose subject is war deals with death and ruin in the most literal way and the results are often desperately hard on the citizens who are the real losers, there is an inescapable feeling of superiority as you look on what are, in 20/20 hindsight, obvious mistakes. It asks and then attempts to answer the question of why leaders who felt confident enough to start a war ended up losing it or why a side that should have won easily ended up suffering defeat. There are many more examples than could be included, Darius losing to the king of relatively tiny and poor Macedonia and ninety thousand Poles being thrashed by thirty thousand Mongols come to mind. Most are here because they are such prime examples of losing. A few wars have been included simply because the unlikely loss had a major effect. Many books concentrate on what went right or the brilliant moves of the winning leaders. This one looks at what went wrong.
We begin with a look at wars lost in modern times, examining with a critical eye the reasons for major defeats in the last sixty years. Now you might think that this means, if the last century's leaders learned from history, we should see mistakes that are different from those made in the past. Really, they should be different, not the same old errors. . . .
How to Lose a War
Excerpted from How to Lose a War: More Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders by Bill Fawcett
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
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